The invention relates to a vehicle door and a manual operating device for controlling electrical and/or electronic components in a vehicle door.
From DE 195 09 282 A1 a vehicle door is known having a modular construction consisting of a door body with a large cut-out recess in the door inside panel, a support plate having several prefitted electrical components and covering the recess, and of a multi-part inside door trim. It is thereby proposed to prefit as many electrical components as possible on the support plate in order to obtain one large unit which can be prechecked, and also to prefit a part of the inside door trim on the support plate. The remaining surfaces which are only covered by further parts of the inside door trim after the support plate has been fitted on the door inside panel are thereby available for fitting the fastening means and producing electrical connections, e.g. for an exit lamp mounted in the inside door trim.
Furthermore, switches for operating the window lifter and the electrical seat adjustment are integrated into a drive and control unit consisting of the electric motor, gearing and electronics. These switches comprise all the electrical contact elements and mechanical operating elements (the user interface components which the user touches) required for controlling the electrical components. Since, however, the user interface which influences the design generally has to be configured differently for each individual use there is a great deal of variation regarding the drive and control unit, which incurs considerable costs in the case of complex structural groups.
The object of the invention is therefore to develop a vehicle door of the kind mentioned above so that the switches required for manual control and associated with the inside door trim can be adapted to the desired design without increasing the number of variations required for other components, and nevertheless can be prefitted on the support plate so that the requirements are met for obtaining, with the suitably equipped support plate, one precheckable unit with which all the components associated with the door body can be tested.
According to this at least one electrical, opto-electrical, optical or magnetic switch element for manually controlling the electrical and/or electronic components is associated with the support plate and at least one mechanical operating element is associated with the door inside trim. During the manual control, the switch elements associated with the support plate and the operating elements associated with the door inside trim come into active connection with each other. Preferably all the electrical and/or electronic components are prefitted inside the door body on the support plate, which covers the recess in the door inside panel in a sealed manner. The electric plug connectors should be set solely on a dry cell side of the support plate.
It is indeed already known from DE 41 26 318 A1 and DE 41 26 345 C1 to create a switch assembly for motor vehicles from two different structural groups of which one comprises the operating elements and the other comprises the switching elements of the switch assembly. However there is no reference here as to how such a switch assembly can be integrated with particular advantage into a modular vehicle door structure to solve the problem mentioned above. More particularly there is no reference to associating the switch elements with the support plate of a vehicle door and the associated operating elements with the door inside trim of this vehicle door according to the present invention.
It is hereby possible to keep the door inside trim free of any electrical or electronic component and to eliminate the expense connected with the cabling of these components and it is also possible to ensure that all the components provided for each relevant vehicle door can be fully prechecked. Furthermore the number of variations resulting from a different desired design affects only the mechanical operating elements, which are associated with the door inside trim and which, with manual control of the electrical components, come into alternating action with the switch elements associated with the door body. There is thus the possibility of also using standard designs for the manually governed electrical and electronic components (such as window lifter and seat adjustment) if appropriate operating elements having the relevant desired design are offered. Further advantages are: easier assembly and dismantling of the door inside trim, better cost-effective repair possibilities, no excessively long cables compared with the cabling of electrical components in the door inside trim and a reduced number of plug connectors.
In order to engender the switching processes during manual control of the components, switch elements can be used which operate according to different physical principles, e.g. by utilizing electrical, magnetic, optic or opto-electrical effects. Particularly advantageous is a combination of magnets and Hall sensors wherein the magnets are arranged in the mechanical operating elements on the part of the user interface and the Hall sensors are arranged in the switch elements on the base part side (e.g. on a support plate of the door body or on a seat frame). It can thereby be ensured, for example, that no contact is required between the operating elements and the switch elements for the purpose of controlling the electrical or electronic components. A switch device of this kind is insensitive to dirt and not susceptible to tolerances so that the positioning between the mechanical operating elements and the switch elements can be produced in a very simple cost effective manner.
If a displacement is to be controlled or sensed in two directions then a pair of Hall sensors are used which function as switch elements. A magnet, forming a constituent part of a swivel and/or displaceable operating element, is associated with these in a central position. Swivel movement or displacement of the operating element from a neutral position leads to the generation of a signal. After the operator has let go of the operating element, the operating element automatically returns to the neutral position (e.g. through spring force).
According to a preferred variation of the invention the electrical connections between the central control electronics and the electrical or electronic components are designed as individual leads wherein the cabling ought to be produced in conjunction with an automatic ready made cabling device. If it is possible through a favorable positioning of the site of the electrical contact points for the individual components, direct contacting means should be used (e.g. soldering or cut-clamp technology).
By using individual leads and by direct contacting it is possible to achieve considerable savings since no expensive cable tree variations are required and at least a reduced number of plug connectors is needed which not only leads to a reduction in the number of comparatively expensive component parts but also leads to a reduction in the assembly costs.